Day 9: John Deere by Anais

 For our first stop of the day we had the opportunity to go to the John Deere Pavilion. Here we learned all about the history of John Deere, the technological advancements and what the future has to hold. John Deere started in 1837 with a horse led plow. Then between 1912 and 1918 Deere built more than a dozen experimental tractors to help transition customers from horse power to engine power. This led to the launch of his first tractors called the Waterloo boy and the John Deere Tractor. 11,500 models were built by small start up shops across the nation, but many went bankrupt in just a few years. After recovery, the first John Deere Combine was sold in 1927. The combo of the tractor and large, new combine took off and Deere was in good business. 

  

  

We were able to learn all of this and more about the start of his company in our walk through the museum. We were able to see brand new lawn mowers, tractors, construction equipment, combines, and even the antique tractors. A fun fact we learned was that, in the mid-19th century, a crew of eight could harvest twenty bushels a day. Today, the self-propelled John Deere X-9 Combine can harvest 7,200 bushels an hour!